Don't Put Me Out
by Torashii
Summary: Tsuna hadn't been up on earth for long, but the young fire demon was enjoying it - even despite the blasted rain. He really didn't mean to get involved with the evil, sadistic water sprite named Reborn, never mind make friends with him. How in hell had that happened anyway?
1. Chapter 1

A/N: New story :A: Well drabble series really, but yeah. I love friendship fics in all their platonic glory and R27 is always fun so yeah.

* * *

Tsuna shifted nervously, fiddling with the handle of his umbrella. Today, today he was going to do it. Definitely.

It was rainy season in Japan – which was unfortunate for Tsuna; just when he decided to move up to the human realm, it was _raining_ all the time. Rain always made his tail twitch horribly. But yes, it was rainy season, and in the week that Tsuna had been there, it had rained heavily, _every single day_.

The small fire demon shivered. He could deal with the rain well enough, especially given that he had his trusty umbrella (Tsuna never went anywhere without it, far too scared to be caught in some sort of water catastrophe), but there was the matter of _him_ , the man in the rain – who Tsuna would, without fail, pass each day on his way home, and inevitably notice the man was always drenched.

The demon had wondered why the man just wouldn't buy an umbrella of his own – because surely he couldn't enjoy getting so wet each day. Being water logged was _horrible_ , it made you cold, your clothes cling to you, and threatened to put your fire out. It was incredibly dangerous for the fire of a fire demon to be put out – many were said to not survive the ordeal.

While the man probably wasn't a fire demon (he would have been dead by then if he were), he obviously didn't enjoy being drenched every day. He always had this horrible scowl on, which made Tsuna more than a little wary to approach the man and offer his help.

Then the poor demon realised, the man probably couldn't afford an umbrella. He wore the exact same clothes every day – a simple back suit with a matching fedora – and so if he couldn't afford new clothes, then there was no way he could afford an umbrella. Tsuna's heart softened. The man obviously tried hard to make up for his poverty – wearing a suit all the time, as if that would make him appear more refined.

The brunet shook his head. This was why he absolutely had to help the man. As soon as he could build up the nerve to.

"Oi." A deep voice echoed through his thoughts, and Tsuna squeaked. It was the man!

When the brunet didn't reply, he continued. "You've been standing there, staring at me for the past five minutes. Is there a problem?"

The demon panicked his eyes going comically wide, and his face adopting an expression of pure horror. He hadn't meant to seem rude!

"Ah, uhm, n-no! I just, uh, I-I..." Tsuna spluttered, waving his hands around him in a panic. He couldn't say it! He couldn't.

So instead of explaining himself, he rushed forwards and shoved the umbrella into the man's hands with a high-pitched 'here!' and rushed off. Tsuna could feel himself blushing, making the rain that hit him (for in his nervousness, he forgot to bring a spare umbrella for himself) heat up and evaporate. The young demon ran home, steaming all the way.

Reborn glanced down at the umbrella he was given, and back at the retreating demon. He smirked.

"Interesting."

The dark haired man pocketed the umbrella, and started to make his way leisurely back to his apartment. He was sure he would be seeing the little demon again soon.

After he walked into his building, and up to the floor his apartment was on, Reborn paused. Right there, outside the door opposite to his was the little fire demon. The older man blinked, surprised. He knew he'd be seeing the short demon soon, but he didn't think it'd be _that_ soon.

"Oi." He said, much like earlier that evening. The little demon snapped upright, looking at him with wide eyes. "What are you doing here?"

"I, uh, live here?"

Reborn sighed, and rolled his eyes. Really, the demon was incredibly slow. "What are you doing out here? Did you get locked out?"

Tsuna nodded frantically. His long, pointed ears were drooping, and his clothes were rumpled and he looked absolutely miserable. The water sprite was immediately reminded of a small, kicked puppy. Reborn felt like sighing again. He unlocked his door, opened it wide and stepped aside. The brunet looked between him and door in confusion.

"Well? Are you going to come inside, or not?"

The young fire demon stared, wide eyed, before quickly nodding and scrambling inside once Reborn started getting irritated.

"Ah, uhm, thank you."

The taller man nodded, taking off his jacket as he did so. He could see the little demon glancing at it, most likely wondering why it was still soaking wet after he was offered an umbrella. Reborn smirked.

"Wondering why I'm so wet?"

The brunet immediately blushed and nodded. Reborn wanted to tease him.

"Well," he drawled, hanging up the dripping jacket. "I _am_ a water sprite."

Tsuna froze and paled. A water sprite. A _water sprite_. Pretty much the natural enemy of fire-based creatures, especially the fire demon. Reborn's smirk widened as he saw the realisation dawn on the little demon's face, and his eyes lit up in an unholy, sadistic glee. The demon made it really easy to bully him.

The sprite moved closer, watching as Tsuna started to shake. He knew of all the stories they told down in the fire realm, how water sprites were evil, that they would drown little fire demons at the first chance. The demon was steadily backing away, his eyes darting around frantically, and his complexion only getting paler. When he couldn't go any further, Reborn leaned in close, his voice just above a whisper.

"Boo."

Tsuna jumped and flailed, and his sheer panic made Reborn cackle with glee. The water sprite kept laughing, that was until Tsuna – in his distress – managed to set the curtains on fire.

"Stop! Put it out, _put it out_!"


	2. Chapter 2

A/N:

CalmCat - Yeah they can, unless they wilfully ignore it, and it combines with creatures' natural magic so it goes unnoticed. Other races here have the same minor sort of difference we have now between humans of different skin colours.

killerpuppy - entirely platonic. You're free to think of at as 'something more' if you like though, I'm just not going to write anything romantic unless it's in the context of a joke.

* * *

"I said I'm sorry."

"That's not good enough," Reborn snapped. He was sitting in Tsuna's comfy red armchair as if it were a throne, back straight and legs crossed. Tsuna ducked his head, ashamed.

How had it come to this anyway? Reborn had scared him in the first place, but he was the one who had to apologise for setting the water sprite's home on fire.

"Why couldn't _you_ put it out?" The demon muttered, petulant. Reborn heard him loud and clear.

He raised a brow. "Why should _I_ put it out when _you're_ the one who controls fire?"

"But you control water!" Tsuna protested.

The water sprite let out a long, suffering sigh. "You weren't very good in school, were you?"

"Hey-!"

"Water sprites," Reborn continued, ignoring Tsuna's indignation, "are the opposite of Fire Demons." He held up a hand to stop Tsuna from interrupting. "So where you create fire, we need to absorb water to live."

"Oh," The demon said. "Isn't that kinda useless?"

Reborn's eyebrow twitched. "What's useless is not being able to go out in the rain without a crutch," he sniped. "Besides, we can still control water. Unless one of us is stupid enough to live in a desert, there's no problem."

Tsuna nodded in understanding. Demon knowledge of sprites was subpar at best. It was interesting to hear about it from the source, and he didn't want to pass up the opportunity to hear more. "But it's not like there's water everywhere," Tsuna replied. "What do you do then?"

"Well the stronger ones can draw water from air," Reborn started. "But you really underestimate the availability of water on earth."

As if to prove his point, a small blast of water hit Tsuna in the back of his head. The young demon screeched and jumped, grabbing onto his tail like a lifeline and holding it close to his chest to keep it away from the horrible liquid.

"Reborn!" Tsuna wailed. "Where did that come from?"

"Your kitchen taps." The water sprite replied, smirking. "Though if you want to know _why_ , it's because you called me useless."

Tsuna's eye twitched. How childishly petty!

"Fine," the demon grumbled, giving in. "You're not useless, and I'm very sorry about your house. Now can you please leave?"

Reborn grinned, and that same, horrendously unholy light entered his eyes once more. Tsuna shivered.

\- x –

Living with Reborn was an entirely new experience, Tsuna thought. It was only fair, he guessed, that he put up with the water sprite while the older man's home was being refurbished (even if he'd been coerced into doing so). Still, the demon thought, while glancing at his bedroom, he had the slightest of inklings that Reborn still wanted revenge.

"Reborn." The demon called, his voice high pitched and distressed. "Why is my bed _soaked_?"

"Maybe you should stop drinking before bed."

Tsuna flushed, stomping his foot. The fire on his tail flared. "Reborn!"

The water sprite rolled his eyes from where he was laying on the waterlogged bed. It wasn't even damp, or simply wet. It was utterly soaked through – water dripping of the duvet sheet onto the floor, and it made an odd squelching sound each time Reborn moved.

"I need to sleep somewhere, stupid-Tsuna," the water sprite stated, as if it was the most obvious thing on earth. "You wouldn't want me getting dehydrated while I slept, would you? He rolled around, dripping water everywhere as he went, and gave the most innocent smile he could manage – which, combined with the amusement in his eyes, wasn't the slightest bit effective.

The demon grit his teeth, and his mounting anger was evident by the increasing temperature in the room. Tsuna screeched, fire quite literally blazing from his eyes as he did so.

" _Reborn_!"

The water demon cackled.

\- x –

Tsuna was lucky he managed to dry his bed out – eventually – because he really couldn't afford having to buy a new mattress. He hadn't been in the human realm nearly long enough to accumulate enough wealth to be able to be careless with it, and he didn't want to ask his parents or grandparents to help. He'd gone to earth to get _away_ from that all.

It was really lucky that the human realm was such a mix of species that he could slip right in anonymously. They had their own magical creatures (though it was a stretch, really to call demons 'magical'), and many creatures from other realms liked to visit as well. Humans for their part were surprisingly accommodating – most of them at least – but Tsuna thought how it was mostly because other species were more of an open secret. People knew they existed, but as long as they weren't in the way or too open about it, people either accepted it or pretended they didn't exist.

Japan already had its fair share of native non-human species, so the country as a whole was one of the most welcoming in terms of other species. Tsuna counted himself very glad he'd found such an open place – people didn't look at his tail, ears or eyes oddly, and one old lady had even gave him some fruit when he arrived in the middle of the street, fresh from the fire realm. He gave her a drop of blood in return, and it was nice she accepted, even if he learnt since that humans didn't actually consume blood.

It was pretty odd, the demon had thought.

Although his bed had dried, through much effort on his part, he still needed to find a place for Reborn to sleep. The stubborn water sprite refused to go back and sleep in his own house – even though his bedroom had been undamaged, because the smell of redecorated 'got to him'. Tsuna had no idea what the spite meant when he said that, but it did mean the demon needed to find a wet place for his guest to stay, lest his bed suffer more.

In a flash of inspiration, Tsuna was struck with the perfect solution. He quickly rushed off to prepare it.

When Reborn arrived back, late that night, tired and wanting to sleep, he was met with the face of an excited demon.

"What."

"I have a place for you to sleep!" Tsuna proclaimed, a proud grin on his face. Without wasting time, the demon grabbed the sprite by his arm and dragged him towards the bathroom. Reborn allowed himself to be dragged, wondering what bright idea had Tsuna so excited.

They entered the bathroom, and Reborn's eyes widened ever so slightly. The bath was full, and the taps had been padded. At one end, floated a very soggy pillow, and throughout the water were scattered various flower petals. At the side of the tub was a jug, which the water sprite could only assume was for pouring more water over his own head.

Reborn looked at Tsuna, his face deadpan.

"You've got to be kidding me."


	3. Chapter 3

Reborn didn't sleep in the bathtub. He invaded Tsuna's bed once more, though thankfully keeping it dry, with one arm hanging off the edge and into a jug of water. Tsuna gave up trying to kick the horrible sprite out of his bed, and simply kept on his own side. He didn't see what was so wrong with sleeping in the tub anyway.

Reborn had threatened to dump him in there and see if he liked it, and the demon had kept quiet, one hand clutching onto his tail as if to keep it safe from evil water sprites and their murderous ways.

Thankfully, they both got to sleep quickly anyway, and neither woke the other up in the middle of the night. Tsuna's unnaturally high body temperatures weren't a problem, happily enough. Apparently Reborn wasn't used to sleeping under duvets – or in beds at all for that matter - (Tsuna had wondered what he usually slept in, but was too afraid to ask), so the demon could happily hog the sheets to himself the whole night without Reborn getting grumpy and cold.

It had gone unexpectedly well. Well, at least until Tsuna had woken up early the next morning to find Reborn's face right in front of his, the sprite's eyes wide open. Reborn didn't appreciate being woken up by a demon screaming in his face. Tsuna wished he didn't have to find out that way that sprites didn't sleep with their eyes closed.

The water sprite, as it turned out, had one fatal flaw. His general evilness aside – which Tsuna could deal with given that he'd grown up with _demons_ after all – and his opposing element notwithstanding, the horrible, _horrible_ creature was a morning person.

Demons were lazy by nature. They liked to lie around, doing nothing and bask in the warmth of a nearby heat source. Water sprites, Tsuna was unfortunate enough to find out, lived in active environment where _everything moved_ and so needed the ability to go from sleep to wakefulness fairly quickly. It was commendable of them, really, to be able to survive as they did, but when Reborn was banging around the morning and – god forbid – _exercising,_ Tsuna was less that appreciative.

 _Stupid git. Stupid, way-too-active git._

The demon groaned and buried his head under his pillow, ignoring the sounds of Reborn doing jumping jacks to upbeat exercise music in the next room.

He absolutely hated water sprites.

\- x –

Sharing his house, Tsuna decided, wasn't so bad when it meant that someone else could run errands when he didn't feel like it. The demon sighed indulgently, and rolled on his stomach, snuggling into his duvet. It was warm and soft, and would be heavenly if only it was fire proof. His tail swished back and forth from outside of the cover lazily, a sign to all that the demon was indeed very content.

He did have some problems initially with just how _flammable_ everything in the human realm was. His blanket had caught fire no less than thirty six times before he looked for some low level charms to make his stuff more fire resistant. Nothing would be that affected near his flame or catch fire by proximity, even if the charm would fail if something came in direct contact with it. Sadly, he couldn't use anything stronger without it being detectable by other demons, which was the last thing he wanted. He had gone to the human realm for a reason, after all.

The sound of a door banging and feet shuffling caught Tsuna's attention, and he perked up.

' _Reborn's back!'_

He quickly scrambled out of bed, eager to meet the sprite at the door. Tsuna had been waiting for ages for Reborn to come back with the groceries, and he was _starving_. Reborn always took far too long, probably taking his time to appreciate the rain, the water loving freak.

Tsuna scrunched his nose in distaste before shaking his head and bounding up to the older man.

"Reborn, you're finally here!"

The sprite raised an eyebrow, but didn't deign to reply, instead slipping off his shoes and moving further into the house.

"So what did you get?" Tsuna ignored the lack of reply, his eyes instead trailed on the bulging bags in Reborn's hands. He couldn't see through the plastic – didn't seem to be from a shop that he'd been to before. Maybe Reborn had gone further away? If so, he must have gotten something special, maybe something _really_ delicious. Tsuna drooled at the thought.

Note, in addition to being massive sloths, demons were highly gluttonous.

Reborn rolled his eyes, but his mouth quirked into a genuine smile – or as much as a genuine smile Reborn was capable of.

"I went and got us something special. I didn't think they'd have all these different kinds, but it is Japan."

The demon's eyes grew wide and sparkly at the promise of special food. Tsuna wasn't excitable by nature – unless you counted easily scared – but food was a consistent motivator for the demon race, and the young brunet was no exception.

"Go sit down," Reborn commanded, walking towards the kitchen. "It shouldn't take too long; these are best eaten fresh after all."

Tsuna nodded enthusiastically before plopping himself down at the dining table. He wondered what sort of food needed to be eaten fresh. Some sort of cream cake? Fruit? Oh, he hoped there were berries, Tsuna _adored_ juicy berries.

The demon's fantasy of biting into a huge, red strawberry was interrupted with the arrival of Reborn, who was holding two large bowls. He set them both down, and Tsuna immediately froze.

"Reborn?"

The demon's voice was strangled as he gazed into the bowl. A variety of fish and seafood stared back at him – some of them literally. He was pretty sure one of them was still flopping weakly. He glanced back at the water sprite, his face pale and slightly green, to be greeted with the sight of the older man eating live fish with abandon. Reborn glanced up, pausing with the head of a weakly struggling fish inches from his mouth. He titled his head, and Tsuna almost, _almost_ believed it was innocent.

"Is something wrong?"


	4. Chapter 4

Going hungry was apparently Tsuna's punishment for treating Reborn as a 'lackey'. Tsuna grumbled, shifting the bags in his hand and glancing at the darkening sky with worry. It looked like it might rain.

Ever since what was dubbed 'The Fish Incident', Tsuna had insisted on doing all the shopping, even if it went against his lazy nature. There were no way he'd let Reborn go again after the stunt he had pulled, and honestly the demon had gotten a nightmare the same evening about all his food turning into fish and trying to eat him.

The brunet shuddered, before shaking his head and continuing down the street.

Well, on the bright side, Tsuna could buy whatever he liked. It was with great surprise and joy that the young demon had found within the human realm some of his favourite delicacies. Eying the numerous glass bottles clinking around in his bag, the brunet smiled. It would be nice to finally drink something other than – _shudder_ – water. How the humans survived on that stuff was beyond him.

Humming a happy tune, Tsuna made his way up and into his flat – though Reborn had insisted on calling it _theirs_ – and made his way inside. The shower was running, _surprise, surprise_ , which left Tsuna free to make himself a proper dinner. Reborn always took forever doing who-knows-what, and after the last time Tsuna walked in on him standing stock still under the spray of water – eyes eerily fish-like as they stared back – the brunet had no desire to find out.

With a happy sigh, the demon took out his ingredients, and got to work.

– x –

"Oh?"

Reborn glanced at the dinner table that was in the middle of being set. In the centre, a large beef roast lay steaming. Next to it was a succulent lamb roast, and next to that was pork... and chicken, turkey, more lamb – and was that _goat_? Tsuna was just in the process of setting down another platter of unidentified red meat when Reborn walked in.

"Reborn! Hey, come sit."

"Tsuna, what the hell is this?"

The brunet cocked his head to the side, an expression that could only be describes as _does-not-compute_ running across his face. "What do you mean? I made dinner."

"Sure." Reborn snorted. "For you, and what army?"

The brunet had the audacity to _laugh_. "Don't be ridiculous Reborn. I've barely made enough for a general, never mind an army."

Reborn took a minute to understand that, yes, Tsuna was completely serious – and then another minute to fight down the urge to punch the demon. Not enough for a general? This amount of meat could feed a school for a _year_.

Granted they mostly ate vegetation, and had meat rarely, but still. Demons were so ridiculously decadent, it was like they had no clue what it's like to fight to feed themselves.

"Right." If Reborn tried to engage any more, he'd probably end up punching the demon anyway.

With a beaming smile, Tsuna gestured for Reborn to sit and then went back for the drinks. A bit lost on where to start – there was _so much food_ – Reborn instead reached for a jug of water and poured himself a glass. There was nothing that could go wrong with that, at least.

He was proven wrong not a moment later, after having taken a large gulp of whatever in god's name that was, only for the most disgusting, _burning_ liquid he'd even had the misfortune to come across graced his mouth. Reborn choked, half of the vile stuff forcing itself down his throat and some of it spilling out of his mouth.

Reborn flailed, grabbing the first juice he saw in an attempt to wash out that vile, awful taste, only to gasp as it burned his mouth too. He stormed into the kitchen, taking Tsuna by surprise. He grabbed the demon by the scruff of his neck, and shook.

"Is there _anything_ here that will not set my throat on fire if I try to drink it?"

Wisely, Tsuna did not comment on the raspy quality of the water sprite's voice, not upon the liquid gracing the front of his shirt. Instead, the demon handed him a brightly coloured glass of juice, which Reborn took warily. If he wasn't afraid that Tsuna had ruined all the water in the house – and how does someone ruin _water?_ It had to be some evil demon magic in revenge for the fish – then Reborn wouldn't have dared drink it. But his mouth still tasted like shit and if he didn't wash that away _soon_ then the sprite was going to throw up.

It was very sweet, and a little weird, but it wasn't that bad. It fizzed too, so it was probably one of odd Japanese fizzy drinks that he'd heard about. Whatever it was, it was better than the not-water that Tsuna had almost killed him with. Reborn would be getting revenge for that, sometime.

Finally, they could sit down and eat. The water sprite watched in part awe and part disgust as Tsuna had plate after plate of various meats while he slowly made his way through his own small bowl of beef. He adamantly refused to touch any other liquid besides the sweet one or any meat that he wasn't entirely familiar with.

"Why... why is your hair so fluffy?"

Tsuna paused in what must have been his fifth helping of food. "Reborn?"

"It's so fluffy. Stupid fluffy. Stupid demon. You're not allowed to be fluffy."

The brunet was looking worried now.

"Reborn, are you okay?"

The water sprite took a moment to contemplate the question.

"...No." He hiccupped. "Ts-Tsuna. What did you, what did you put in the food?"

The water sprite was swaying, and Tsuna was starting to get really worried before the answer hit him.

"Oh! It was the alcohol!"

Even presumably completely off his rocker, Reborn managed a scarily intense look in which Tsuna could imagine the accompanying words of _what alcohol?_ It was scary just how well his imagination managed to replicate the exact level of hissed fury that Reborn would have used in reality.

"...Demons only drink alcohol?"

The brunet hastily ducked out of the glass thrown his way, and got back up in time to see Reborn rushing towards the bathroom. Not a moment later, the sound of retching filled the air.

Tsuna gulped.

"I," cough "am going to fu–" retch " _kill you_."

If Tsuna wasn't so absolutely terrified, he might have found it fascinating how Reborn managed to be so threatening while he was in the middle of throwing up. A few minutes of listening to Reborn hack back up his dinner was ended by the sound of a loud thump.

"Reborn?"

Tsuna glanced around fearfully, and slowly made his way towards the open bathroom door.

"...Reborn?"

On the floor, Reborn was passed out, looking extraordinarily pale. If it weren't for the steady rise and fall of his chest, the brunet would have been panicking over the thought that he was dead.

As it was, Tsuna was going to die instead. Reborn was going to murder him so thoroughly; his brother would have to scrape the crushed remains of his organs off the bottom of Reborn's shiny dress shoes.

The demon grimaced, wondering what he was supposed to do with the unconscious form of the water sprite.

"Well, shit."

* * *

A/N: I was Reborn last night :A:

To clarify, the 'water' was Vodka, the 'Juice' was spiced Rum, the 'Fizzy drink' was some alchopop like WKD, and all the meats were cooked in red wine. Because alcohol dehydrates you (and burns so well) I thought it'd be likely that Demons would love it and water sprites would avoid it at all costs. Reborn, being a water sprite, has never drank alcohol before, and only really has knowledge of the common drinks of the humans around his home - which is wine and beer. Thus he has no clue what to look out for o/

Also ty for the reviews. Also, I won't write in a full detailed appearance because it seems like unnatural narrative and Tsuna's pretty much the same with a few extras like the tail and ears. If he has anything important that shows he's a demon then it'll come up eventually.


End file.
